# Kansas Redefines Science **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 8, 2005, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-redefines-science/330132 "2005-11-08T23:25:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-redefines-science/330132/141 "2005-11-10T07:18:39Z")
Replying to **John Mace** ’s post #116 Yes, I know it is just 1 example of backward thinking and it’s not as if the whole country is going to agree with this redefinition of science. However, I feel stories such as this are indicative of an anti-intellectual mentality in this country. Heck, we’ve got a president who publicly announces that he does _ **NOT** _ read newspapers. And to all the other posters, I hope no one thought my posting was “Kansas-bashing” because it wasn’t intended as such. I was just condemning this idiotic decision and _not_ condemning the population of the state of Kansas. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-redefines-science/330132/142 "2005-11-10T14:11:08Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I guess you didn’t get the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff when you were in school then. If you have something to say, you mealy-mouthed motherfucker, why don’t you come out and say it? Feel free to email me if you lack the courage to do so in public. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-redefines-science/330132/143 "2005-11-10T15:49:22Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > Well, as a Georgian I am hardly in a position to mock Kansas and Kansans,but I do anyway. What a bunch of maroons! What a load of gullibles!!! I can’t BELIEVE the voters of Kansas go for this crackpot Intelligent Design shit, but they do, they LOVE it! > > Last night on PBS they had a really neat, offbeat little film called [“Okie Noodlin’”](http://www.okienoodlin.com/) about a sport enjoyed by Oklahoma good ol’boys in which they go into various lakes and rivers and such and feel on the bottom for catfish holes, then reach in and let the catfish bite their hands and then pull the catfish out to the surface – huge catfish, three foot-long, sixty-pound monsters, (check out the photos on the site link I provided) all without the benefit of hooks, line and sinkers. Sure, sometimes they get bitten and so forth, but still, it’s hand-fishin.’ > > Those Okie good 'ol boys didn’t look like they were burdened with a lot of extra brain cells, but on the evidence, they are smarter than Kansans. > > Now, coming from a state which has residents who regularly do their best to lower average human IQ, I fully sympathize with Una and other sane Kansans. I gotta tell you, though, the only way to get past this sort of thing is to learn to laugh at it, even while you’re fighting it. Otherwise, they’ll wear you down with the sheer massive, unmoveable bulk of their stupidity. Jesus, but that’s disturbing. Christ!! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-redefines-science/330132/144 "2005-11-10T15:57:52Z")
> [@wolf\_meister](#): > > Replying to **John Mace** ’s post #116 > > Yes, I know it is just 1 example of backward thinking and it’s not as if the whole country is going to agree with this redefinition of science. > However, I feel stories such as this are indicative of an anti-intellectual mentality in this country. Heck, we’ve got a president who publicly announces that he does _ **NOT** _ read newspapers. We have him in a remedial class now. He’s still struggling with Pet Goat, but we hope for some progress (eventually)(maybe). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-redefines-science/330132/145 "2005-11-10T17:12:48Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I guess you didn’t get the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff when you were in school then. **Baker** , don’t call people trolls, even indirectly. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-redefines-science/330132/146 "2005-11-10T17:24:09Z")
> [@wolf\_meister](#): > > Replying to **John Mace** ’s post #116 > > Yes, I know it is just 1 example of backward thinking and it’s not as if the whole country is going to agree with this redefinition of science. > However, I feel stories such as this are indicative of an anti-intellectual mentality in this country. Heck, we’ve got a president who publicly announces that he does _ **NOT** _ read newspapers. But I don’t see that as any big sea change. Anti-evolutionists have been trying to do this stuff for decades, sometimes succeeding and sometimes not. This year they were successful in Kansas, and they failed in PA (where the anti-evolutionists were voted out). My point is that we’re not really seeing anything new, so there’s no reason to think this is going to affect the country as a whole. Yes, it’s disturbing when ignorance wins out, but this isn’t the first time it’s happened and it won’t be the last. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-redefines-science/330132/147 "2005-11-10T18:29:28Z")
People should feel free to mock my state and the residents therein. I do. We’re round on the ends and crrrraaaaazy in the middle. ---
**Author:** ![5que](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/3bc359/32.png) [@5que](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5que)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-redefines-science/330132/148 "2005-11-11T19:57:10Z")
[Sticker templates now available!](http://www.improbable.com/teach/lessons2005/NOT-VALID-IN-KANSAS.pdf) NOT VALID IN KANSAS as per order of the Board of Education, November 8, 2005 Use of this device or substance may require, imply, and/or endorse the existence of one or more of the following: chemistry; evolution; electromagnetism; gravity; mathematics; thermodynamics; education [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-redefines-science/330132.md?page=7)